ABSTRACT
The controversy surrounding the use of negative political advertising is based on a set of arguments, some explicit and some implicit, that negative political advertising has an effect that is different and more harmful on the body politic than positive political advertising. These arguments may be due to the pejorative tone of the phrase “negative political advertising.” Because the term includes the world “negative,” there must be something bad about it. If indeed there is something bad about negative political advertising, it must be doing something bad to the individual, political institutions, and to society (QED).
